Saylor Sounds Alarm on BIP-110: Bitcoin's Protocol Change Dilemma

Bitcoin co-founder Michael Saylor has warned that a proposed protocol change, BIP-110, could harm the network from within.

Saylor stated that Bitcoin has secured its place as global digital capital but expressed concern over misguided protocol changes, specifically those tied to BIP-110.

The proposal seeks to introduce a temporary one-year soft fork that would restrict non-monetary data in Bitcoin transactions, targeting Ordinals inscriptions and large OP_RETURN payloads. Saylor views this as 'bad ideas driving iatrogenic protocol changes' - a medical term referring to harm caused by treatment itself.

Supporters of BIP-110 argue that it is necessary to protect Bitcoin's identity as sound money, while critics like Blockstream CEO Adam Back warn that consensus-level restrictions could damage the network's credibility and set a precedent for transaction censorship. Back believes that the proposal trades a predictable rule set for a 'spam filter' that fails at filtering spam.